The inventors of this application have appreciated a disadvantage of previously known dispensers for soap and other fluids that they do not provide a simple and convenient manner for indicating whether or not a container for the soap or other fluid to be dispensed is full or empty. The ability of a dispenser for soap or other fluids to provide an indication as to whether or not a container containing the soap or fluid is full is of considerable assistance in monitoring such dispensers and determining whether or not to replace or refill containers for the soap and other fluids.
Collapsible dispensers for soap and other fluids are known which are self supporting as when filled with material yet are provided to collapse upon themselves.
The inventors of this application have also appreciated a disadvantage of previous known collapsible containers that when they collapse, the collapsed container does not provide a self-supporting structure which can be relied upon to locate the container relative to other elements. More particularly, previously known collapsible containers have been appreciated to not be capable of continuing to support themselves in a vertical orientation supported on a base of the container both in an uncollapsible condition and in a collapsed condition. Further, the present inventors have appreciated that previously known collapsible dispensers suffer the disadvantage that back, side or front surfaces of the container also do not adopt consistent configurations when collapsed which can serve to assist in locating the collapsed dispenser relative, for example, to other portions of the bottle or to other surfaces such as the housing or support for a dispenser.